Suchergebnisse

ORIENTATION: South African organisations are increasingly recognising the importance of attracting, developing and retaining top talent, especially management employees. RESEARCH PURPOSE: In an attempt to help organisations with retaining talent, this study focused on career success and identified specific factors that influence the career success of managers in the South African work environment. MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDY: Organisations need to establish favourable organisational conditions and human resource practices to retain their management employees. By identifying influential factors for the career success of managers, this research may help organisations to focus more accurately on their retention strategies for management employees. RESEARCH APPROACH, DESIGN AND METHOD: The present study used a qualitative research design that followed an exploratory approach. A non-probability purposive sample of 24 senior management employees was selected from two financial institutions in South Africa. Qualitative data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews and the verbatim transcriptions were analysed by content analysis. MAIN FINDINGS: Managers identified various factors that impact on their career success. One can distinguish 'external' factors (e.g. political and economic climate and business environment) from 'internal' factors (e.g. individuals' personal attributes, skills and education). PRACTICAL,MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS: Individuals should focus on the internal contributing factors, whilst organisations should manage the external contributing factors more effectively. CONTRIBUTION/VALUE-ADD: Specific South African factors that influence the career success of managers should be included in future retention strategies. From the findings it is suggested that both the individuals and organisations can implement strategies to ensure career success and thereby help retain the top talent in organisations. ; The National Research Foundation (NRF) under the reference number TTK20110823000025405. ...

This article analyses the South African legal framework governing security rights in movable property with the view to inspire law reform. The analysis is based on a comparison of the current South African framework with the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions, a soft-law instrument containing international best practice. The problematic aspects of the South African framework benchmarked against the UNCITRAL Guide are: (1) not having a common legal framework that equally applies to all types of (including quasi-) real security transactions; (2) the scope of the current framework not being comprehensive (inclusive) enough; (3) not having an efficient enough method of creating the security right; (4) the current publicity method, particularly concerning special notarial bonds, being overly cumbersome and not providing effective public notice to third parties; and (5) the current enforcement measures potentially not being the most efficient. Regarding each of these problem areas, the article makes proposals on how the South African legislature could reform the current framework into one that is legally efficient and in step with international best practice.

Intragenic recombination has been described in various RNA viruses as a mechanism to increase genetic diversity, resulting in increased virulence, expanded host range, or adaptability to a changing environment. Orbiviruses are no exception to this, with intragenic recombination previously detected in the type species, bluetongue virus (BTV). African horse sickness virus (AHSV) is a double-stranded RNA virus belonging to the Oribivirus genus in the family Reoviridae. Genetic recombination through reassortment has been described inAHSV, but not through homologous intragenic recombination. The influence of the latter on the evolution of AHSV was investigated by analyzing the complete genomes of more than 100 viruses to identify evidence of recombination. Segment-1, segment-6, segment-7, and segment-10 showed evidence of intragenic recombination, yet only one (Segment-10) of these events was manifested in subsequent lineages. The other three hybrid segments were as a result of recombination between field isolates and the vaccine derived live attenuated viruses (ALVs). ; The Economic Competitive Support Package (ECSP) from National Treasury of the South African Government. ; http://www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses ; am2019 ; Veterinary Tropical Diseases

BACKGROUND : The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is characterized as a holoendemic malaria area with the main vectors being Anopheles funestus and members of the Anopheles gambiae complex. Due to political instability and socio-economic challenges in the region, knowledge of insecticide resistance status and resistance mechanisms in these vectors is limited. Mosquitoes were collected from a mining site in the north-eastern part of the country and, following identification, were subjected to extensive testing for the target-site and biochemical basis of resistance. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to assess a suite of 10 genes frequently involved in pyrethroid and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) resistance in An. gambiae females and males. In An. funestus, gene expression microarray analysis was carried out on female mosquitoes. RESULTS : In both species, deltamethrin resistance was recorded along with high resistance and suspected resistance to DDT in An. gambiae and An. funestus, respectively. A total of 85% of An. gambiae carried the kdr mutations as either homozygous resistant (RR) (L1014S, L1014F or both) or heterozygous (RS), however only 3% carried the rdl mutant allele (RS) and no ace-1 mutations were recorded. Synergist assays indicated a strong role for P450s in deltamethrin resistance in both species. In An. gambiae, analysis of transcription levels showed that the glutathione-S-transferase, GSTS1-2, produced the highest fold change in expression (7.6-fold in females and 31-fold in males) followed by GSTE2, thioredoxin peroxidase (TPX2), and cytochrome oxidases (CYP6M2 and CYP6P1). All other genes tested produced fold change values below 2. Microarray analysis revealed significant over-transcription of cuticular proteins as well as CYP6M7, CYP6P9a and CYP6P9b in insecticide resistant An. funestus. CONCLUSIONS : These data show that high levels of deltamethrin resistance in the main malaria vector species, conferred by enzymatic detoxification, are present in the DRC. ; Additional file ...

BACKGROUND: Accurate Anopheles species identification is key for effective malaria vector control. Identification primarily depends on morphological analysis of field samples as well as molecular species-specific identifications. During an intra-laboratory assessment (proficiency testing) of the Anopheles funestus group multiplex PCR assay, it was noted that Anopheles arabiensis can be misidentified as Anopheles leesoni, a zoophilic member of the An. funestus group. The aim of this project was, therefore, to ascertain whether other members of the Anopheles gambiae complex can also be misidentified as An. leesoni when using the standard An. funestus multiplex PCR. METHODS: The An. funestus multiplex PCR was used to amplify DNA from An. gambiae complex specimens. These included specimens from the laboratory colonies and field samples from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Amplified DNA from these specimens, using the universal (UV) and An. leesoni species-specific primers (LEES), were sequence analysed. Additionally, An. leesoni DNA was processed through the diagnostic An. gambiae multiplex PCR to determine if this species can be misidentified as a member of the An. gambiae complex. RESULTS: Laboratory-colonized as well as field-collected samples of An. arabiensis, An. gambiae, Anopheles merus, Anopheles quadriannulatus, Anopheles coluzzii as well as Anopheles moucheti produced an amplicon of similar size to that of An. leesoni when using an An. funestus multiplex PCR. Sequence analysis confirmed that the UV and LEES primers amplify a segment of the ITS2 region of members of the An. gambiae complex and An. moucheti. The reverse was not true, i.e. the An. gambiae multiplex PCR does not amplify DNA from An. leesoni. CONCLUSION: This investigation shows that An. arabiensis, An. gambiae, An. merus, An. quadriannulatus, An. coluzzii and An. moucheti can be misidentified as An. leesoni when using An. funestus multiplex PCR. This shows the importance of identifying specimens using standard morphological dichotomous keys ...

In the context of the Beyond Ultradeep Frontier Fields And Legacy Observations (BUFFALO) survey, we present a new analysis of the merging galaxy cluster MACS J0416.1−2403 (z = 0.397) and its parallel field using Hubble Frontier Fields (HFF) data. We measure the surface mass density from a weak-lensing analysis and characterize the overall matter distribution in both the cluster and parallel fields. The surface mass distribution derived for the parallel field shows clumpy overdensities connected by filament-like structures elongated in the direction of the cluster core. We also characterize the X-ray emission in the parallel field and compare it with the lensing mass distribution. We identify five mass peaks at the >5σ level over the two fields, four of them being in the cluster one. Three of them are located close to galaxy overdensities and one is also close to an excess in the X-ray emission. Nevertheless, two of them have neither optical nor X-ray counterpart and are located close to the edges of the field of view, thus further studies are needed to confirm them as substructures. Finally, we compare our results with the predicted subhalo distribution of one of the Hydrangea/C-EAGLE simulated cluster. Significant differences are obtained suggesting the simulated cluster is at a more advanced evolutionary stage than MACS J0416.1−2403. Our results anticipate the upcoming BUFFALO observations that will link the two HFF fields, extending further the HST coverage. ; This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 734374. This work was partially supported by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET, Argentina) and the Secretaría de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (SeCyT-UNC, Argentina). MJ is supported by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowship 'Using Cosmic Beasts to uncover the Nature of Dark Matter' (grant number MR/S017216/1). This project was also supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council [grant number ST/L00075X/1]. DH is supported by the D-ITP consortium, a program of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) that is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). MS is supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) VENI grant 639.041.749. ; Peer reviewed